Colonel Sanders' handwritten recipe

[Dimmauk]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Colonel Sanders' handwritten recipe for fried chicken was back in its Kentucky home Tuesday after five months in hiding while KFC upgraded security around its top corporate secret.

Nothing went afoul when the recipe was returned from an undisclosed location to KFC's headquarters late Monday in a lockbox handcuffed to the wrist of a security consultant.

KFC President Roger Eaton was visibly relieved when the door to a new electronic safe was shut with the single sheet of yellowing paper stashed inside. "Mission accomplished," he said.

"It was very nerve wracking," Eaton said later of the recipe's hiatus from a vault where it has been kept for decades. "I don't want to be the only president who's lost the recipe."

KFC is a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., which also owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food.

The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and spices that coat the chain's Original Recipe chicken, including exact amounts for each ingredient. It is written in pencil and signed by Harland Sanders.

The iconic recipe is now protected by an array of high-tech security gadgets, including motion detectors and cameras that allow guards to monitor the vault around the clock.

"It's like an onion of security — many layers," said security expert Bo Dietl, who brought the recipe back to the building.

Thick concrete blocks encapsulate the vault, situated near office cubicles, that is connected to a backup generator to keep the security system operating in times of power outages.

"I can guarantee you, once it's in there, it will be safe," Dietl assured Eaton.

The recipe is such a tightly held secret that not even Eaton knows its full contents. Only two company executives at any time have access to the recipe. KFC won't release their names or titles, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents.

"We've very comfortable with the security," Eaton said. "I don't think anyone can break into it."

Just how valuable is the recipe?

Thomas P. Hustad, professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, said the recipe "goes to the core of the identity of the brand." The recipe, along with the man who created it, conjure images for the chain that help set it apart in the minds of customers, he said.

"I would say that the heritage value is just as high for this secret recipe as the stories around the Coke formula," Hustad said by phone Tuesday. "I guess I'd put the two of those at the top of the pyramid."

Dietl said the security measures he installed replaced an "antiquated" system. For years, the recipe was kept in a filing cabinet equipped with two combination locks in the vault.

"The colonel could have used a pry bar to open that thing up," Dietl said.

Sanders developed the formula in 1940 at his restaurant in southeastern Kentucky and used it to launch the KFC chain in the early 1950s. Sanders died in 1980, but his likeness is still central to KFC's marketing.

KFC had 15,580 locations worldwide at the end of 2008, including 5,253 in the U.S.

The chain is hoping to revive sluggish U.S. sales with the launch of a value menu and an April rollout of a new grilled chicken product aimed at health-conscious consumers.



I didnt know how serious this shit was. I thought it was a made up recipe.

[Lordender]

lol and the chicken still sucks.

popeyes > KFC.

[Dimmauk]

lol and the chicken still sucks.

popeyes > KFC.

I totally agree. Love that chicken from Popeyes.

Toss up between KFC and Popeyes fries though.

[Bearsan]

Both are good, but Popeyes has better biscuits and sides.

[Correction]

Fuck you guys are making me want to drive to Popyes for lunch, but the closest one is in a seriously horrible fucking South L.A. ghetto.

[Fhloston]

Popeye's red beans & rice FTW...it's good for fast food, at least. Though KFC has some pretty good wings. Fuck I'm craving chicken now.

[Olo401]

fkyea.. I'm stopping in Prov on the way home tonite and gettin' a 3-piece at Popeyes. Screw KFC and their greasy-ass chicken

[Komm Suesser Tod]

I have never been to a Popeyes, but I love KFC's biscuits, and you people are telling me that Popeyes has better biscuits? Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Now I need to find a Popeyes.

[guartz]

KFC has spicy chicken wraps.

It wins.

[Mizango]

Bojangles or GTFO motherfuckers.


Oh and Churches gets an honorable mention in there. Greasy chicken and okra for the fucking win! The only valid reason to trek to the hood. I mean other than to get a sack.

[Charismatic]

Bojangles or GTFO motherfuckers.

Nobody but a black guy would even think to eat at a place called Bojangles.
No reason to preach to the white man, your cries fall on deaf ears.

[Mizango]

Nobody but a black guy would even think to eat at a place called Bojangles.
No reason to preach to the white man, your cries fall on deaf ears.

True speak my nig.

Bojangles is the shit. Wait till my dawgs Kyo and Koyuki get up in this piece they will school you 'bout some Bojangles.

[Correction]

Bojangles doesn't exist outside of states where inbreeding is a televised competitive sport.

[Devolver]

i <3 bojangles, and im as white as a winter snowstorm ><

also they have these little buffalo bite thingies, makes me want to touch myself

[Mizango]

[Mizango]

also they have these little buffalo bite thingies, makes me want to touch myself

Preach it. They don't know...

[Day]

Bojangles has the best fries ever

[Demosthenes]

Someone mentioned chicken and watermelon... so I showed up.

[Mizango]

Someone mentioned chicken and watermelon... so I showed up.

loool

[Day]

Bojangles doesn't exist outside of states where inbreeding is a televised competitive sport.

CORRECTION: It exsists in NY, PA, NJ, MD, VA, TN, NC, GA, SC, AL, and FL.

WV isn't even on the list dumbass.